Holy Mother! What is beautiful!
It's ' one of the oldest and most powerful abbeys of Europe that covers more than 1600 history, there where the St.Victor martyr is buried and which gave a Pope (urban V).

The visit of the Basilica, crypts and their sarcophagi can be every day, summer and winter, from 9: 00 to 19: 00.
You will be asked €2 per person for entry into the Crypts, €1 only for groups from 10 people.

Home visits, to discover a friendly and spiritual of the Abbey and the Crypts, all on Tuesday and the 1st Saturday of the month, between 16 h and 18 h with Madam Yvonne de TESTA.

Note, that on Sundays at 5:30, you can come and listen to the organ of Saint Victor (call for information, it's not every Sunday).

Finally, be aware that theAssociation of friends of St. VICTOR, organizes a series of concerts and events (call to find out the program).

Attention to the mass times, during which you must follow offices:
the weekend
Mass early Saturday at 6:30 pm
Church on Sunday at 9: 00 and 11: 00
during the week
Mass on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday at 6:30 in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament
Mass on Saturday at 9: 00 in the crypt

With our Lady of the guard, the Abbey Saint Victor is one of the emblematic places in Marseille. A must-see.

Call if you need information or want to make a guided tour.

NAMELY
Every year at Candlemas a pilgrimage important held: a procession starts from the old Port to the Abbey of Saint-Victor using the Holy Street. The Black Madonna kept in the crypts is clothed in his green coat and is presented to the crowd. the Archbishop blesses her, celebrates mass and then went to the four des Navettes where he blesses these cookies in the shape of boats typical of Marseille.

A BIT OF HISTORY
Under the Roman Empire
Under the Roman Empire, the site of the Abbey of Saint-Victor was a career, then a Christian Necropolis. The Abbey owes its name to Victor the Martyr, an officer in a Theban legion composed entirely of Christians, who was beheaded. His legion was also completely massacred by Emperor Maximian Hercules in the year 302.C' is around a cave, located outside the walls of Marseille, that the monastery of Saint-Victor was founded by Jean Cassien around 415. He was given the name of Saint-Victor in tribute to the officer decapitated. The Church, as, she, date of 440.
In the middle ages
750 to 960, Saint-Victor is the residence of the Bishops of Marseille. Charlemagne made a donation to the Abbey and assures its protection. By this action, the Emperor increased the imperial control over regions of the South of the France.
Towards the end of the 9th - early 10th century, the power of the benedictine Abbey of Saint-Victor is undermined by the barbarian raids that ruin her entirely. Honorat II, responsible for the bishopric of the city, in 948, and parent of the first Viscount of Marseille then rebuilt the Abbey and are re-established monastic life. When he died, his parent Pons I, Bishop in 977, continues his work. The first Abbot of St. Victor is Wilfredus (or Guilfred), in 1005. He rebuilt the Abbey, devastated by the Saracens, to make a successful, famous and exemplary place. The monastery gets significant concessions of the Pope Jean XVIII, confirmed and extended subsequently by many Popes.

Around 1020 to 1047, the Catalan Isarn monk's Abbot of Saint-Victor. His promotion of the power of the Abbey is spectacular. In 1040, Pope Benedict IX dedicated the Church, and after his death September 24, 1047, Isarn is canonized.

September 28, 1362, Guillaume Grimoard, Abbot of Saint-Victor, is elected Pope and takes the name of urban V. He died in Avignon, but his remains are transported to Saint-Victor, which he never ceased to be the benefactor.

From 1570 to 1588, Jules de Medici is Abbot of Saint-Victor. Historians suspect him of having plundered the Abbey library whose books known with an inventory of the 12th century - particularly of ancient manuscripts - disappeared. Mazarin, Abbot of Saint-Victor in 1655, is also suspected to be captured some of these books.
In the Renaissance
On 17 December 1739, Clement XII decreed the Secularization of the Abbey, affected only Provencal nobility. In 1794, the Abbey and the two churches are stripped of their treasures, relics are burned, gold and silver are used to beat currencies and the place becomes a deposit of straw and hay and even a prison.
According to Joseph Marchand, if the Church has been preserved, it is because it housed slaves. It is this same Joseph Marchand that leave evidence showing that the cloister served to house the soldiers called the allobroges.
In the twentieth
In 1963, the city of Marseille and the Ministry of cultural affairs start excavations and a complete restoration of the Abbey. In 1997, she joined the inventory of historic monuments.

Open on sunday